I just looked out the kitchen window, and it’s snowing. If I look out the back windows, it’s snowing, but sunny. I live in a seriously messed up part of the world… Yesterday morning, it looked like this.
I contemplated not going out, but my car had an oil change appointment, so off I went. From there, I thought about whether or not I should go out to the spring sale at Pam’s Woolly Shoppe, but Alberta 511 said the roads between me and Stony Plain were okay, and the news people were saying just to take it easy, and I haven’t lost the knack for winter driving yet, so I did. The roads were wet and ugly, but there were only a few places that were dodgy, and I got there all right and in decent time. I got all the presents bought that I needed, and picked up a skein of Noro Taiyo Sock for summer socks for me. More on Noro tomorrow.
At that point, I had to decide if it was worth driving home before the brag and tag for the knits for Terra. I decided not, so went to run a few more errands, and spent a pleasant hour knitting at the Kingsway Teavana with an iced Almond Plum tisane. I wonder if anyone would like to start an occasional knit meet there… Lots of great tea, a nice seating area at the back…
Anyhow, then it was time for the knits for Terra.
I had a little set that I’d knit up a while back, which I called ‘Only You Can Prevent Forest Fires’ because the mitts look like matches, and it needed a home, so I brought that along with the booties and beret for Knitmonton’s contribution. Once we had it all laid out, though, it was a sight to behold.
We are childless by choice, Mike and I, for a variety of reasons, so I don’t pretend to know what it’s like to have a new baby. I definitely don’t know what it might be like to be a new parent and still be a teen, but I can’t imagine that it’d be easy. Will a little hand-knit hat, or sweater, or little Converse-style booties make it any easier? I don’t know. But I do know that that pile of knitting up there? That’s a pile of encouragement. Of strangers saying, “It’s hard, but we’re rooting for you. Here. Wrap your baby in this. I made it, and I’m thinking about you, and your baby, even if I never know your names or faces.” It might not make a difference, but it might. Sometimes, when you put something out to the universe, the universe responds. That pile of knits, and the knits that are still to come in, is us Edmonton knitters putting a bit of love out there into the universe for these new babies. Universe, you know what to do now.